My Work!
I am the founder and Director of Rory’s Studio and as a Deaf British Sign Language user, I strive to illuminate Deaf Culture within mainstream forums. I am a resident of Newcastle upon Tyne and an artist who has been educated in the north east, graduating from Newcastle College in 2005, with a foundation degree in animation and illustration. I began my professional career as an illustrator, working in collaboration with writer Julia Donaldson on her children’s book Gruffalo. Since then I have worked extensively as an ambassador for Deaf awareness. In 2012, I was invited by the Paralympics to produce and direct Driving Inspiration, a live action short film that included representation from disabled children from across the UK.
From 2014 - 2016, I began to research and develop Gothrella, - a theatre production made for Deaf and hearing children and families, which involved working in collaboration, with a team of eight professional artists. I extended the dissemination of my research, to involve members of the Deaf community living in London, this was achieved by working in partnership with the Royal Association of Deaf People and Camden People's Theatre, In total, 19 Deaf people and 22 hearing people engaged in the activity which was supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
In 2015 I was appointed a Director of Surface Area Dance Theatre CIC, and have recently completed a national tour of Auricular performed at CCA: Glasgow, Berwick Visual Arts and Turner Contemporary. In May 2017 I travelled to Tokyo, Japan to collaborate with Japan Deaf Theatre and begin a creative dialogue with company members to explore thematic concepts found in the Ginger Bread Witch, which was supported by Arts Council England’s, Artist International Development Fund.
A strand of Rory’s Studio activity involves international exchange and production, In September I was invited by BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art to work in partnership with Nicole Vivien Watson as guest producers for Where our Root are Planted, a participatory project led by the internationally renowned deaf choreographer Antoine Hunter. Students and faculty from the Royal Conservatoire in Scotland took part in the activity, Claire Lamont, Head of BA Performance in BSL & English commented, “It has been wonderful to connect with the work that Nicole Vivien Watson and Paul Miller are leading. Since the BA Performance programme was launched in 2015 as the first dedicated conservatoire training in the UK for deaf performers we have appreciated this relationship and the opportunity it gives us to share knowledge and practice. It is so important for our students to connect with deaf artists and to find out about their pathways into the industry and how they approach the work they are developing. We are incredibly grateful to Nicole and Paul and look forward to an ongoing relationship”.
